


Blue and Green Skies

by kuumai



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Post-Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 19:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17028768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuumai/pseuds/kuumai
Summary: Matt thinks about his time on Earth before visiting Team Voltron.Keith takes a moment to relax before confronting Shiro on his fight with the clone.Matt has a nightmare, and Keith resolves to comfort him.





	Blue and Green Skies

Should you have asked Matthew Holt if he were excited to return to Earth, he would have said yes with no hesitation. However, in all honesty, he didn’t feel as thrilled as he thought he should be in this situation. It didn’t feel completely real yet. How could he actually be preparing to return to his home planet? Impossible.

Far over a year had passed since he’d seen the Earth, the dry dirt, the tall trees, the towering skyscrapers, or the cozy, little houses. His house. His mother, with her golden brown hair and her glowing smiles. He could almost smell how the peanut butter cookies Pidge and his mom used make filled the kitchen with the most heavenly scent he’d ever had the blessing of experiencing. He could almost imagine the feeling of Mom’s arms, tight around him whenever he scored poorly on a test or had a falling out with a friend or just needed a warm hug. The real thing would be so much better than imagining, though. 

Yes, far over a year had passed since he’d watched the green and blue sphere painted with white clouds disappear from his view. He’d missed his family deeply as he left for Kerberos, but he had also been inexpressibly exhilarated at the prospect of being a part of this mission with his father and his friend. He’d had a dream of changing the world. Little did he know that what they discovered after landing on Pluto’s moon spanned so much farther than his world. Oh, how he missed that little world. He could never go back there, not really. Sure, he could return to Earth, but he could never return to that naive, young dreamer he used to be.

Far over a year since he’d left Earth, but it felt like many lifetimes ago. Matt blinked as he examined his reflection in the fountain outside of the “Space Motel” (that being Lance’s term) he’d been directed to. He tilted his head. His cheeks were tinted red from the bite of cold in the air. He’d grown a bit taller, and his hair was a bit longer. And there was the scar down his left cheek. He was a bit more muscular now, though he wondered if anyone could actually tell. His current style looked significantly more grungy than his old wardrobe of pastels. The water, or whatever it was that the fountain was shooting out, moved and warped, distorting his reflection. Matt realized that the skin between his eyebrows was crinkling up, and he lifted a hand to his face to smooth out the wrinkles.

Matt moved his eyes up to the dark, starry sky above him. He psyched himself up to hide his serious, thoughtful expression with his usual persona before entering to search for his friends, but when the doors opened unannounced and Shiro asked him if he was planning on standing outside all night, Matt didn’t have to force the wide smile that crossed his face.

“Shiro.” He meant to exclaim it, but the name came out as more of a warm, soft acknowledgement. A white puff of condensation came with his breath. Maybe the wintry weather was contributing to Matt’s nostalgia; he had so many happy childhood memories of Christmastime with his family. Marshmallows floating in hot chocolate, and stockings hanging above the fireplace, and – no, this was not the time. 

“You really are alive,” Shiro managed to say. It was then that Matt fully processed what Keith had explained to him several hours prior. The Shiro that Matt had met all that time before was a clone, Keith had said. This was Shiro’s first time seeing Matt, wasn’t it?

Matt’s smile grew, if that was even possible. “Yeah, I am. And you are, too.”

“Come here,” Shiro insisted, but it was Shiro who crossed the several feet between them and pulled Matt into a hug. Matt melted. Shiro gave angelic hugs. After what really wasn’t long enough, Matt pulled back to examine Shiro’s face. Up close, he could clearly see dark shadows under Shiro’s sharp, kind eyes. He looked more exhausted but more content than Matt ever remembered seeing. Then there was his head of shockingly snow-white hair. It had caught Matt off-guard at first. 

“I wasn’t before,” Shiro spoke again, his smile falling away and drawing Matt out of his thoughts. 

“Wasn’t what?”

“Alive.”

“Oh,” Matt exhaled. “Yeah, Keith told me.” That caused Shiro’s eyes to widen, and Matt quickly amended, “I mean, he said he didn’t tell the others. Just me.”

Shiro looked only a little relieved to hear that. “Okay….”

Hunk appeared in the entrance to the hotel, followed by Lance, who was wrapped like a burrito in a navy blue blanket, like the color of the night sky. Well, the night sky on Earth. On this planet, the wide expanse dotted with stars above Matt was more of a dark green. 

“Come on in, guys! It’s cold out there!” Hunk called, motioning to the doorway.

Lance theatrically added, “Super cold!” His teeth clacked together to add to the effect, and he pulled the blanket tighter around him.

Someone from inside the lobby of the hotel angrily told Hunk off for keeping the door open. Hunk sheepishly disappeared back inside along with Lance. 

Matt and Shiro shared one last look. “Let’s head in, then,” Matt said. He reached his left hand out to rest on Shiro’s upper arm, paused at the empty air, and quickly corrected to touch his shoulder. He began gingerly at first, unsure of what might pain his friend, then gave a more firm grip as the two walked inside. Shiro smiled sadly, subtly, but Matt didn’t allow himself to return the expression. 

In the lobby, Hunk and Lance were chattering away about this and that. Something about the castle ship’s unbelievable tech or an outlandish story Coran had told them about Altean crustaceans. The group made their way to the elevator across the room, but Matt couldn’t bring himself to focus on the conversation between the two excitable boys. No, now that he was inside, Matt was too anxious to see his –

The sleek, modern doors of the elevator slid open soundlessly, and there she stood, as if summoned by just Matt’s thinking of her.

His little sister. 

Matt finally let go of Shiro to catch Pidge in his arms and swing her in a circle. He sat her down and put his hands on either side of her face. Those same, beautiful, brown eyes that he knew and love stared back at him. 

“Hey, your hands are freezing! Cut it out!”

Pidge cringed out of his grip, but Matt quickly gave her one more hug.

“Hi, Pidge.”

“Hi, Matt.”

Hunk cleared his throat. “I adore the family bonding time, but could it happen inside the elevator? I think it’s gonna leave without us.”

 

 

Keith extended his legs in a stretch as best he could while avoiding the small green paladin kneeling on the floor in front of him. Then he stretched his neck out, resulting in a satisfying crack, and slumped once again onto the old, worn-in couch in their hotel room. Shiro, on his left, said, “I wish my neck would pop like that,” just as Matt, on his right, said, “Nice one, man.”

Keith smirked. “Thank you.” 

“No prob, bob.”

Allura and Coran were on the smaller couch opposite Keith, and the three youngest paladins sat in the middle. Krolia and Romelle had already retired to bed. They were the smart ones, really. The whole reason they were here on this planet was to rest the pilots before their long journey. Everyone was just too excited to see Matt. They were all talking about...something. Keith wasn’t really listening, to be honest. Something lighthearted and happy. Something that finally let Keith relax. He allowed his head to fall against Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro didn’t say anything about it. 

Coran laughed that loud, hearty laugh of his, and Lance was looking quite smug with himself. Keith felt Shiro vibrate with silent laughter. He liked it here at Shiro’s side, liked to feel the small vibrations and the warmth. Shiro was here. Shiro was alive. In that moment, that was all Keith needed. 

Keith could feel his eyes growing heavy from the dim lights in the room and the contentment in his heart. He wasn’t sure how his thoughts arrived where they did, but he found himself sitting up to inch closer to Shiro’s ear. 

“Shiro?” he whispered. 

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember the fight I had? With the clone?”

Shiro shifted to view Keith’s face, his dark and pointed eyes seeming to search for something. Shiro’s own expression stayed neutral. Seeming satisfied to find nothing worrying on Keith’s face, he returned to his previous position. “No. It kind of feels like the memories are trapped in here somewhere and I just access them, but no, I don’t.” Shiro paused. Lance exclaimed something particularly loudly involving breaking hearts and Jenny something-or-other. Matt guffawed. Then Shiro continued in hushed tones. “Is there something I should remember?”

“No,” Keith replied, because he truthfully didn’t want Shiro to remember. Shiro had had enough experience with repressed memories popping up at unwanted times. He didn’t need to remember doing something when he wasn’t even the one to do it.

“Did I...it say something?” Shiro prompted. 

“No,” Keith once again responded. “I mean, yes, but I know that wasn’t you, so it didn’t bother me.”

“Okay.” That was another thing Keith liked about Shiro; he didn’t press for answers Keith wasn’t ready to give. He would let Keith speak in his own time. But Keith could tell he was listening, waiting. 

Keith timed his breathing with Shiro’s, followed the rise and fall of his shoulders. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Okay. 

“I cut your arm off.”

“Oh.”

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. 

“Well, good riddance,” Shiro finally said. 

And somehow, despite all his anxieties, Keith chuckled. 

He really did want to talk more. When his thoughts became too quiet, Keith still heard the clone’s scream of agony echo in his head. He still had a little voice whispering to him that he’d become just like the crazed galra who took Shiro’s arm in the first pace. 

He still wanted to tell Shiro he loved him. The real Shiro, this time. 

But that could wait for another day, another place, alone. 

For now, Keith thought as he drifted to sleep against Shiro’s shoulder, being here with his family was all Keith needed. 

At first, Keith wasn’t sure what woke him. It seemed almost completely silent in the room. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Keith spotted Pidge laying atop Hunk in the middle of the room upon the soft carpet. Allura was curled on her side on the other couch. He had the fleeting thought that she looked so much younger when asleep. Shiro snored quietly beside Keith. Coran and Lance must have gone to find somewhere to sleep as well. 

Keith had nearly fallen back to sleep when his foggy mind put together that his right side was cold, as if something or someone had just recently moved from that spot. Keith sat up slowly and stretched, searching around the room for Matt. Blinking wearily, he spotted Matt’s form slouched against the wall behind Keith, leaning on a decorative dresser with one hand and covering his mouth with the other. 

Matt uncovered his mouth and said in a hoarse whisper, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Why’d you get up?” Keith slurred. 

“I dunno,” Matt blubbered in return. “Couldn’t sit still.”

Keith finally put together that something was wrong, and immediately his senses became clearer. If Keith needed to be awake for something, he was. He could push exhaustion off a long ways. That was a survival skill picked up in his childhood. 

Keith stood and stepped around into the hallway behind the couch. “Are you not feeling well?”

“I’m not sick,” was Matt’s reply, carefully avoiding giving an actual answer.

Keith was close enough now to see fresh tear tracks trailing down Matt’s cheeks. Matt pressed his hand back to his face for a moment to muffle a hiccup. 

“Do you want to talk?”

“I...yes.”

Keith let Matt steady his shuddering breaths and calm his shaking hands. Keith hadn’t hesitated to offer Matt a listening ear, but now that Matt had agreed, he felt a sense of nervousness. The two had worked in close contact with each other on several accounts, but they hadn’t spoken much at all as just friends. (Did they qualify as friends?) Plus Keith wasn’t necessarily the best at comforting others – or speaking at all, for that matter. But he could at least listen. 

“I had a nightmare about Naxzela,” Matt began. “I mean, it started out as just a memory. It was... I was watching.... You know, I said ‘we’ll never break through those shields’ or something, and you said, ‘maybe not with our weapons.’”

Keith had a loose idea of what was coming next.

“It was just, like... what would’ve happened if Lotor didn’t come, or if you hadn’t pulled away in time, or something.”

“I was doing what I thought I had to in order to save everyone.” That came out far more defensive than Keith intended.

Matt sniffled and ran his hands through his hair. “No, yeah, I get that. I respect that. Like, what you tried to do made sense logically. I’m not mad that you did what you did; that’s why I haven’t said anything about it. But even so, I was terrified that you might actually….” He coughed. “Being so close to losing a friend was really scary.”

“Oh. A friend?” That was… that caught Keith off guard. Sure, he was friends with Shiro. And the rest of Team Voltron, but at the same time, they had all been suddenly forced to spend months together in close quarters, so did it count?

“Yeah, a friend. I mean, no, I – if that makes you uncomfortable, then you don’t – I’ll just, yeah, I’ll shut up now.” Matt tugged at his hair and moved as if to leave.

Keith became equally uncomfortable. “No, sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. It surprised me, because I don’t… have many friends….” Keith covered his face with his hands. “That sounds pathetic. Okay, okay –” He drew in a deep breath. “No, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I’m glad to be friends.”

Matt smiled. “Dork.”

“If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black,” Shiro said.

Matt started, almost knocking over a purple potted plant on the dresser next to him, and Keith unsheathed his blade. Shiro was still on the couch, his arm hanging over the back of it as he watched them. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you two are going to have to quiet down before the others wake up, too.”

Matt pressed a hand to the center of his chest and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Geez. Okay. I need a moment to chill.”

Shiro suppressed a laugh and stood as Matt rounded a corner to find the restroom down the hall. Keith moved back around to Shiro’s side of the couch and held out his hand. And because it was Shiro, he understood and wrapped Keith in one of his angelic hugs. 

“I made a friend.”

And because it was Shiro, he didn’t laugh at Keith, only held him tighter.

And because it was Shiro, Keith didn’t have to say it right then; he would later, but at that moment it didn’t matter because Shiro understood.

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning of this was written in July, the middle in August, and the end this month. It appears I struggle with finishing writing absolutely anything, but anyways, here we are!


End file.
